


They Call it Magic

by sleeptalker



Category: Frankenstein MD
Genre: Feminism, Science, Victoria feels things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 21:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2204250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeptalker/pseuds/sleeptalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She does, however, resolve to never stop doing science. Children aren’t worth giving up what you love, she thinks, and she pads off to bed and tucks her chemistry set under her bed, ready for the next day. </p>
<p>------</p>
<p>An explanation (of sorts?) as to why Victoria loves science so much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Call it Magic

**Author's Note:**

> So this is basically based around the line (and I'm paraphrasing here) "It's not too late to raise a family."

Victoria is five when she receives her first “junior chemistry kit.” It’s incredibly basic, nothing like the chemistry she sees on TV, and she’s a little disappointed but she smiles up at her uncle gratefully. He ruffles her hair and she pretends to enjoy it, then he leans back and explains:

“You can be just like your mom!” Victoria doesn’t know what that means, not yet, but she remembers to ask her mother later.

“Mom?” She tugs at her mother’s dress, a red and green Christmas-themed one that Victoria loves and her father hates.

“Yes?” She bends down to her daughter’s level, smiling encouragingly at her.

Victoria shows her the chemistry set, and relays the words that her uncle said to her not long before.

Her mother looks uncomfortable for a few seconds, and this is the first time Victoria’s ever asked a question that one of her parents can’t answer (there will be many more times after this) but it soon fades and her mother smiles at her.

“I used to enjoy science. But then I decided to stop doing science because I wanted to have you.” The words are sugarcoated with a wide smile, but Victoria knows that there’s more to this story. She decides not to press it however, to wait until it’s a better time.

She does, however, resolve to never stop doing science. Children aren’t worth giving up what you love, she thinks, and she pads off to bed and tucks her chemistry set under her bed, ready for the next day. 

* * *

She comes home from school disappointed that they do not do “proper” science in first grade. (She had asked the teacher why and apparently made an awful fuss about it, so she also comes home with a letter from her teacher stored in her bag.)

Her mother asks her “did you make any friends?”

Victoria answers “no, I don’t like them.” Mostly because it’s the truth, and partly because she’s still hurt by the rejection her new classmates have given her.

She trudges up the stairs to her room, and retrieves her chemistry set from under the bed, and makes a few experiments of her own. (She had finished the experiments in the book long ago, as well as the chemicals the set came with, so she has taken to doing household experiments such as “What will happen if soap powder and hot milk is mixed?” And, her personal favourite, “What will happen if Mentos are mixed with Coke?”)

Her father comes upstairs, to tuck her into bed, and discovers her dropping BluTac into some mysterious orange liquid, and tells her to go to bed and to “Get rid of that daft chemistry set, there’s barely anything left in it.”

When she comes home from school the _next_ day, a little angry as she got homework for the first time in her life, the chemistry set is no longer under her bed. 

* * *

She joins the “science club” in fourth grade and can hardly wait until school finishes so she can head over to “the lab” (aka Room 12) where it is being held. She is hoping that this club will help her make new friends, _real_ friends with interests like hers, and they can do science together.

But then she walks through the door and nine boys stare back at her in confusion. One boy (whom she will late know as Leo McGhee) leans over and whispers to his friend, and they start to laugh. Another points to her and asks the teacher (a weary looking mid-forties woman with large bags under her eyes and strange stains on her cardigan) “What’s _she_ doing here?”

The teacher reprimands him (“Samuel, it’s not nice to point.” Is sighed over her mug of coffee) but he still sneers at her when she walks to the center where the chairs are gathered and takes a seat away from him, away from all the stupid boys.

The teacher takes the register, and Victoria listens for any other girls’ names, but aside from a “Jordan Donaldson” that _could_ be a girl but is probably a boy, there are none.

She listens to the teacher’s speech on “the elements” (a term she’s heard of before, but never quite fully understood) and even takes notes. They do one experiment (Victoria wouldn’t even call it an experiment, really,) and then the hour is up and the teacher ushers them out the classroom.

While retrieving her coat, the whisper-laugh boy from earlier approaches her. She regards him warily, but does her best to smile at him. Perhaps she’s judged him wrong; perhaps _he_ is the friend that she’s been looking for. The thought makes her happy, so she opens her mouth to say something to him – to greet him, maybe, or formally introduce herself (“Victoria Frankenstein, future scientist,”) but alas.

“Cheerleading Club’s in the gym,” he smirks at her. “Should’ve signed up for that instead. _Girls_ can’t be _scientists_.”

She sticks her tongue out at him and walks the other way despite that way taking her twice as long to get to the playground. 

* * *

Victoria discovers physics when she is in fifth grade, and she instantly falls in love. Of course, she loves _all_ the sciences, she loves everything _about_ science, but physics enchants her. She feels as though she can do anything; electricity, lighting, everything. With science, she is able to know how things _work_.

She realises later that she can also create things that she never thought she would’ve been able to before. 

* * *

Her teeth apparently aren’t perfect so, halfway through middle school, she gets braces. She doesn’t have that many constant friends as it is, (she’s the strange girl who likes science classes too much), and the other kids tease her.

They call her “metalmouth.” They shout it through the hallways, across the asphalt playground.

“So?” She retorts. “Metal elements are the most common, not to mention most useful, elements of all. We couldn’t survive, as a species, without metal. Metal is important.”

Needless to say, it doesn’t get the effect that she hopes for. The boy (who appears to be the ringleader of this group), Leo McGhee, laughs in her face.

Victoria says the only other thing that comes to mind at this moment: “Screw you. 

* * *

In high school, Victoria studies so hard for her final exams that she neglects almost everything else.

If she doesn’t pass her science exams, then she can’t become a scientist. (And yes, scientist is a broad and juvenile word, but that’s what she’s called it since she was 5 years old and she’s not going to stop now.)

Of course, she passes with flying colours, but on her Physics she is 1% shy of a B and panics.

She begs her chemistry teacher to write a good reference for her, so that she can go on to study science in college.

She gets the acceptance letter in the mail and cries on her bedroom floor. 

* * *

Victoria “has her differences” with a lot of the males in her department.

In her head, she shrinks them down to the size of 12-year-old Leo McGhee, whereas she is bigger now. She knows what she’s going to do with her life. She’s not going to become her mom.


End file.
